" STORED " WATER IN TEXAS. 

 CARLSBAD, N. M., Sept. 1619. 



Probably never before in the history of 

 any arid section in the United States has 

 it been more clearly developed that "water 

 was the life of the land" than during the 

 past summer at Carlsbad and in its vicin- 

 ity. During the past ninety days scarcely 

 enough rain has fallen to lay the dust, 

 surely not enough to benefit any growing 

 crops, sugar beets, alfalfa, fruit or vegeta- 

 bles; still with the exception, possibly, of 

 the sugar beet crop, nothing suffered. 

 The alfalfa yield is fully up to the aver- 

 age of former years, exceeds it somewhat 

 io fact, and the fruit shipped from the val- 

 ley and yet to be shipped, exceeds in quali- 

 ty as well as in quantity that of any pre- 

 ceeding year. All this is due strictly to 

 "stored" water, vast lakes, which at the 

 expense of thousands were constructed to 

 hold acres of water to place on land that 

 in seasons like (he present would other- 

 wise have become a dry, dusty wilderness, 

 an accumulation of sage-brush and mes- 

 quite. 



The history of this year is of course not 

 the history of every year in the Pecos 

 valley country. Not by any means. The 

 rain during the summer usually averages 

 fourteen to sixteen inches. This year in 

 many sections of the valley and the ad- 

 joining ranges it went barely two inches. 

 in parts of Texas where irrigation is un- 

 known, hot weather, combined with the 

 absence of the usual rainfall, did deadly 

 work among the cotton plantations. A 

 prominent cotton - planter and cattle- 

 breeder from south Texas was here the 

 other day, and in answer to questions as 

 to how his section would average this year 

 with proceeding years, said : 



"My own case is a typical one. I own 

 several 'black land' farms, and 'black land,' 

 or 'black waxy' as it is termed, is acknowl- 

 - edged to be among the richest soils in the 



world. It fully equals in fertility the fa- 

 mous 'adobe' wheat lauds of California. 

 In an ordinary season, where the rainfall 

 reaches anywhere near the average, a bale 

 of cotton to the acre is almost the rule, 

 and in some especially favored spots a 

 bale and a half was not an unusual pro- 

 duct. This year (he said) fully ten acres, 

 on the average, were required to produce 

 one bale, and the staple was of a very in- 

 ferior grade at that. 



Now, although "comparisons are odi- 

 ous," as the saying is, they certainly in 

 this case furnish an object lesson so strik- 

 ing that no one, not even the most obtuse 

 or prejudiced can for a moment deny that, 

 although irrigation may not in itself pos- 

 sess all the advantages of copious rainfalls, 

 it approaches them so nearly in the bene- 

 fits it bestows upon a district that in their 

 absence it may be said to very nearly take 

 their place. 



The Pecos valley country is, for the 

 greater part, a grazing proposition, but 

 like all other grazing districts, no matter 

 how rich they may be in natural grasses, 

 their permanence rests chiefly on their 

 ability to produce rich fodder for young or 

 fine stock each year with unfailing regu- 

 larity. This the great Pecos valley has 

 done and is doing to-day, and although 

 farming and fruit raising pays here, and 

 probably always will, the raising of fine 

 cattle and sheep will always be the indus- 

 try that with the aid of irrigation will 

 offer the shortest road to wealth and the 

 development of the best resources of the 

 country. ARGUS. 



The question of forest preservation di- 

 rectly interests every irrigable section. 

 Water for irrigation has its source, in al- 

 most every case, in forested regions, and 

 if the.-e areas are destroyed by reckless 

 cutting or firing the water supply will fail 

 in time of need as surely as the forests are 

 destroyed. 



